As You Like It, RSC, Roundhouse

The RSC fails to excite with Shakespeare's awkward comedy

by Alexandra CoghlanTuesday, 18 January 2011

Star-cross(dressed) lovers: Orlando (Jonjo O'Neill) gets to grips with Rosalind (Katy Stephens)Ellie Kurttz

“Now go we in content. To liberty and not to banishment.” A touchstone to productions of As You Like It, Celia’s wishful recasting of the Forest of Arden can rarely pass unchallenged by directors. In 2009 we saw Michael Boyd’s RSC production go head to head with Thea Sharrock’s unexpected and beguilingly sunny interpretation at the Globe – a contest in which Sharrock proved a comfortable victor. Returning once again with his conventionally darker-hued take on Shakespeare’s comedy, the question was always going to be whether Boyd could grasp the authority that so slimly eluded him last time.

Boyd's production vacillates, threatens violence while brandishing a rubber knife

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